Outliers, Success, and Schools That Work

I love reading Malcolm Gladwell's books.  What Gladwell does, I think, is popularize ideas, like memes in The Tipping Point, or emotional bids in Blink, in books that I call, "edutainments'--books that communicate new ideas, but that describe them in a way that is a lot of fun to read.  Even if his books didn't raise interesting questions, they are worth reading just for the stories.  But of course they are more than stories.

In his new book, Outliers, Gladwell, discusses hockey players, Bill Gates, the Beatles, a man with an IQ of 195, the causes of airplane crashes--which I happened to read just as I started off on a flight--and other wonderfully interesting anecdotes designed to tell, as his subtitle says, "the story of success."  I'm going to offer up an overly simple summary of those ideas (you can find better summaries all over the net) and cut to what most educators will find interesting.

First, there's a lot of luck involved in being successful.  Most NHL hockey players, for example, are born prior to March, for reasons he explains--now I know why I never made the NHL!  

Second, success requires hard work, in fact, Gladwell offers a number, 10,000 hours, and offers plenty of examples, including Bill Gates and the Beatles.

Third, culture is an incredibly important part of success.  Here Gladwell suggest that the success of Asian mathematics students, and the failures of Air Korea pilots are both the result of cultural heritage.   

Gladwell's example of an organization that capitalizes on all three of these factors is KIPP charter schools.  You can see a video about KIPP schools at this site .

What Gladwell suggests is that KIPP schools are successful (and they certainly do appear to be very successful) for these reasons.  First, their students spend more time in class.  Their classes start earlier, last longer, and classes also run on some Saturdays.  KIPPS students do better because they work harder.  

Second, KIPP schools are ground in a culture that acts on a shared, authentic belief that all students can learn, and KIPP schools are populated by teachers who are deeply committed to making a difference. For example, all KIPP teachers give their cell phone numbers to students, and students are free to call them any time in the evenings if they are hung up by home work.  KIPP teachers also work on some Saturdays.  I have been told that KIPP found some of its first teachers by going to school parking lots in the evening and putting flyers on the cars of teachers who were still in the schools working.  Teachers who worked into the evening because of their commitment to kids were the kind of teachers wanted in KIPP schools.

Gladwell's third factor, luck, of course, occurs for those students who happen to live in the communities where they are able to go to KIPP schools.

I don't know a lot about KIPP schools, but I do hope to learn much more. Gladwell's book, and the story of KIPP schools, suggest that a culture of success and hard work can make a difference in all schools.  I'm looking forward to learning more about what KIPP does and what all school leaders can learn from them.

Comments

[Lara Parent]

I love Malcolm Gladwell's work as well. This is a phenomenal book. I still love The Tipping Point, enjoyed Blink--though not as much--but the Outliers is "Tipping Point" amazing.

I have been actually sharing the KIPP parts with my 7th grade students and debating whether or not to use an excerpt. It would be a great discussion starter to use at a staff meeting.

His contrast between the Chinese ("No one who can rise before dawn 360 days a year fails to make his family rich") and our approach to education and work ethic also really made me think.

Have you seen this talk?:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2007/gladwell

He was on TED awhile ago too, in case you missed it:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.html

[Spelling Games]

Thanks!

[joe]

Which all points to why kipp schools or charter schools or any school that in itself an "outlier" is non sustainable as a solution to public education. Willing and motivated staff and students, who also work far above and beyond the normal work day improve tests scores and performance. Who knew? Now find me a public willing to commit the time & MONEY for this to be done nationwide. Oh wait you can't, nor will you in the current educational environment in the US. These schools are outliers and are by definition non repeatable in any number.

Politicians and the public love to point their fingers and say "look high performance is possible." They are right. It is possible, just not in any statistical amount that would matter overall in public education. There are literally thousands of people in country as smart and hard working as bill gates, but they will never get the opportunity to be him. Charter schools and so forth are fools gold when it comes to student achievement. Unless the public is willing to extend school hours and days and also increase salaries about 40%.